flowers and fruit

We’re often more attracted to the flowers than to the fruit… since the flowers are glorious advertisements for the plants, often meant to attract attention, attract insects and other living creatures to help in the spreading of the seed, and the procreation of the plants. But where there are flowers, there often are fruit, some of which are also meant to attract living creatures to spread seeds.

Of course, when it comes to fruit, we are most interested in those fruit that we can eat… and having been warned by mother or father or teacher that certain fruits are not to be eaten, we lose interest.

But those who’ve learned to familiarize themselves with the greenery around them, find great pleasure and inspiration in the subtle manifestations of plant life… and a vegetable becomes more than something to chomp on… or a sorry description of a human being who has lost his vitality.

After that overwhelming encounter with the orchids in my mother’s home, I had the desire to look at more flowers and watch them grow… and I told you of my visit to the botanical garden, and the great pleasure I had walking through the lanes, and looking at the plants that had been assembled from so many different places around the globe.

Probably, what most impressed me on that visit, was that though I spent hours getting to know the many plants and trees, and some of the wildlife that found its way to that beautiful garden from the neighboring communities, I was only able to see part of what they offered. We keep thinking, if we go to the right address, we’ll see who lives there… but it’s not like that, really. We see a little bit, a side of the face… the way they feel that morning… and then if we want to know them better, we have to go back again and again to get to know them well.

It is now really summer here in Jerusalem. One hot day is followed by the next. But it is quite pleasant. I live without air conditioning; with my windows opened wide in the summer months. And when there is no breeze, I don’t mind turning on a fan for a little artificial breeze. But I enjoy the weather thoroughly… both the long days, and the cool nights. I saw an owl the other day, and tried to provoke it to share with me some of its wisdom. But it chose to respond in silence.